A West Midlands media expert is urging the local media industry to pull together to tell potential advertisers of the impact of the many changes there have been in recent years.

David Bagley, managing director of David Bagley Media in Lichfield, believes that some advertisers may be wasting up to four fifths of their spending.

This is because they are using the wrong media to reach their targets.

"There's an old adage that goes 'I know I'm wasting 50 per cent of my advertising, the trouble is I don't know which 50 per cent'," he says, "but because of the way they are buying it, they are probably wasting up to 80 per cent by not reaching their target audiences."

Mr Bagley, who is one of the biggest independent planners and buyers of advertising in the West Midlands, believes one of the problems is the perception advertisers have of the local media.

"They probably place their advertising in the media they read and hear, or where they advertised in the past, this is now probably not reaching their target market best," he says.

"The problem is that in the past ten years there has been an explosion in media outlets, particularly local radio and free newspapers and magazines.

Mr Bagley, a former managing director at the Birmingham radio station BRMB, moved into media planning and buying media in 1997.

He now advises many local and national advertisers, including several property developers active in Birmingham city centre, on the best ways to spend their advertising pounds effectively.

He pointed out that by careful planning, precious advertising money could be used to better effect.

He explains: "For example, the share of listeners and readers of the few radio stations and newspapers ten years ago are now spread over many more - and therefore smaller but are more targeted to specific demographics."

It is this proliferation of competing media that Mr Bagley would like to see them come together in an exercise to educate their clients.

"I would like the media to do more to help show how their clients can advertise wisely and get value for money, possibly using a combination of media," he says.

"Perhaps it is a question of buying rivalries but the exercise would help to deliver happy customers who come back to advertise."

One template is the Radio Advertising Bureau, set up and funded by commercial radio stations in the 1980s, to promote better understanding of radio advertising, and which Mr Bagley was instrumental in founding.